a year since the very first tango lesson ... part 2 (the PARTY)

Saturday Jan 13 I organized a party/milonga to celebrate one year since my first lesson. It was pretty awesome, a large part of the local community was in attendance (maybe around 60-70 people) and I had the opportunity to dance again with a few of my favorite partners.

I announced the dress code to be "formal with a twist" and some of the invitees complied but most did not. The "casual" is so ingrained in this society that people don't even own formal attire anymore. Well, I was dressed in a dark grey tail coat, with seriously flared red pants and a white, fairly long linen shirt. I will upload a video in the next few days, and you can decide for yourself if the outfit worked. I liked it.

D was there and at the beginning of the party, when there was no one else dancing we went ahead and danced a few tandas. She did really good, good posture, presence, no (much) anticipation. I am proud of her. She did "lose" it later and she was really depressed about it. Funny thing, I am familiar with that feeling. As I was getting better, once in a while you get one of those dances (or even whole tandas if you're lucky) where EVERYTHING works. And then it stops working and the depression sets in ... Well, it looks like it's part of the process. I think it's a combination of ... ahem ... mojo, vibe with the partner, music and chance. The good news is that these moments get more frequent as one gets better. So, keep at it D, you're on your way.

For the party I made a couple of bowls of eggplant salad which was a great hit, and I didn't even have tomatoes to go with it (shhhh, don't tell anyone but they go really well together). D made hummus and a cold pasta salad, they were both delicious and they were a great success as well. People brought some more food and along with the other snacks we had I think we managed to keep everyone fed.

While it certainly hurt in the wallet, I'm glad I did it, tango is such an important part of my life now, a year of tango seemed important enough to justify all the trouble.